Blog @ Work

A Handful of Anecdotes

In a faraway land called 'pre-2000,' what Earthlings now call blogging was called 'keeping a diary'. It's hard work to do well. I tried doing it in the early 1990s but had to stop because I no longer had a life - instead I had this thing that generated anecdotes to go into my diary. The diary took over and I had to stop. Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is very right and I agree, apart from the last sentence of course, I have no intentions of stopping, I just started.

It's good to be aware of the pitfall he is talking about. The blog taking over your actual life. There is a downside to keeping a public diary. A writer wants to showcase her writing, splashing it out on the blank page, pimping it up for good enough reasons as to make it enjoyable to read, chuckle about or make the reader smile. In any case you want the other person to think about your scribbles, and you want to satisfy yourself as the writer. There is a lot at stake. One way of doing that is by treating the blog as an independent piece of writing. Therefore it can grow into its own personality, its own character, and its own truth over time. If you are not careful it has nothing to do with real life any longer. It can even swallow up your real existence.

Douglas' answer was to quit the diary project all together. My answer now would be: Is it so wrong to create a second life independent of the writers life? I am not saying this is about to happen here, but if it does I don't mind. I like creating more than one life. In the end it's all mine. Even if that means my life is no more than a handful of anecdotes.